


There's a light that never goes out

by Alittle2Rooish



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Comics), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Coming of Age, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Romance, Slice of Life, Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alittle2Rooish/pseuds/Alittle2Rooish
Summary: This is the story of how Michelangelo recovers from heart ache and grows as a person. Set in the Mirage vol 4 continuity and told from Mikey's point of view. Don't worry if you are not familiar with that part of TMNT history, This story will examine some tropes and completely rearrange them. It is set story is in the 2000's at about the time Mirage vol 4 came out, thus, making the brothers around 40. Since it is a Mirage story, there will be a lot of 80s inspiration despite being a pretty much modern day story. The 80's is one of my favorite decades and I hope it's one of your's as well.
Relationships: Michelangelo/Seri Michelangelo/OC Leonardo/Radical
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	There's a light that never goes out

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer, Author's notes, and dedication:  
> I do not own TMNT or Mirage, or Viacom or any of it's properties. I am just a woman with a few ideas that I felt like sharing. Finally posting a fic for a fandom I have been a part of for so long has been a New Years resolution for some time now and here I am on New Years Eve posting it.  
> This story is heavily inspired by my love for the 80's and features the Mirage turtles. It has been set in the time line of Mirage vol. 4. I know that this is a story line few are familiar with but I felt up for the challenge of writing Michelangelo as the narrator of this story and telling it from his perspective. He is more chill in Mirage but also more creative, compassionate, and much more clever. He doesn't have a surfer dialect nor does he spout constant catch phrases and when it comes to food he's all about making it himself or sampling all that such a diverse city has to offer. This is my favorite Mikey and I hope to give him a bit of the love he sorely misses.  
> This fic is dedicated to the women in my life and I am honored to have the privilege to call my friends.   
> I admire their strength as they face the battles of trauma, disordered mental health, and everything life can toss their way. Most of all I thank them for helping me fight my battles on a daily basis, you all have been amazing.  
> One last note: Yes the title is a Smiths song and yes I am completely aware of what an absolute trash bag Morrisy is, the characters are too and will be happy toll you about it!

There's a Light That Never Goes Out  
by

Alittle2Rooish

Chapter 1  
(Let me tell you a story)

People don't die of broken hearts, they just feel like they’re dying because emotional pain can be extremely intense. Joy can be intense too but pain just seems easier to focus on for some reason... easier to remember too. I bet if you asked someone to recall the best day of their life they give you a super generic answer: wedding, birth of a child, getting a bunch of money. The last one isn't really common but you get the picture.  
However, if you asked someone to come up with the worst day of their lives, you may need hours because people remember every gory detail of the bad stuff. Every disaster basically starts off as a great idea...and then it isn't and by that point your problems sort of take on a life of their own. I am a man of great ideas, and even bigger disasters and the biggest ones tend to stem from my natural tendency towards optimism. I flirt with cynicism but it never seems to come naturally to me; it just isn't who I am. I've made peace with this aspect of myself but that doesn't mean it's been easy for me these nearly forty years of being alive.   
As you might have guessed reading this, I'm a writer...Well I write, I was even published but lately I've been too busy feeling sorry for myself after a series of traumatic events, which could be the focus of its own book...but that's not why I'm here. I finally have a story to tell, so much has changed since the last time things have “changed”. Not all of it is pretty but I know I'm a different person now because of it, not better, just different and I guess that is the best anyone can ask for when you are in the process of being a work in progress.  
———————————————————————  
Like many other happy people, I live in the great state of New York! People here are so happy that you can hear them shouting with joy at the top of their lungs every morning and night. I mean sure they are screaming obscenities and telling you how many ways you can do all sorts of things to yourself in Macy's front window and trust me it would make for an interesting Christmas display but everyone still wants to come here. That has to count for something, right? Immigrants came to Ellis Island from all over the world, hipsters came here to be artsy and unique... just like everyone else. Then one day aliens landed here with the help of a benevolent race of jelly fish... tentacled... pink... guys, er persons called The Utroms. They were under the impression that they could help this world, cure disease and famine, share knowledge with their fellow sentient beings...but they were wrong.  
Humans tend to have a fear of things that are unfamiliar to them and often that fear turns to hate. I wish I didn't know this first hand but I do. I was born on earth and lived in Manhattan for as long I can remember. However, this is where things tend to diverge from the plot you may have thought you were getting. It's probably for the best I just pull this band aid off right here before you get too invested in reading this under false pretenses.  
I am a resident of earth made with alien parts... Ok that's way too vague but when I elaborate on this you are going to think this whole thing was some weird prank or something, so hold on tight folks! This one is definitely a strange plot twist... I was, at one time in my life a pet store turtle, not much bigger than a silver dollar or a pog (are pogs still a thing?). Someone liked me enough to purchase me and the fine gentlemen who became my brothers. We were all set to become some kid’s pets when our bowl was dropped on a sewer grate and the four of us fell into a puddle of glowing gunk that made us grow bigger and smarter and of course gave us the gift and curse that is self-awareness.  
My brothers and I went from tiny little turtles to big turtles that walked upright and had human levels of intelligence, speech, and of course emotion, that and the fact that we were raised by a single father made our life a colorful one. Sure, it wasn't easy and we dealt with a lot of things your average family couldn't even dream of but we had a truly incredible bond that has manage to follow us into adulthood...More or less.  
My name is Michelangelo but most people call me Mikey, Mike, or on rare occasions Michel, which just feels really serious but I'm not exactly particular about it. Yes it's an odd name but you know, it's a part of me but I will tell you all about it but later.  
  
This story starts with a new job, one I was more than a little reluctant to take but as I mentioned, I am an optimist. It was a bodyguarding gig for the Utroms. They hired someone to go out into the city and make sure that the newly landed extraterrestrials were settling into their lives on earth and that their physical and emotion needs were being met. My job was to make sure that said person completes their tasks and comes out in one piece if one of their “clients” should become hostile. I figure at this point, you are left wondering: “Mikey? You were hired to be someone’s bodyguard?” and the answer to that is “Yes.” My brothers and I have been training in martial arts our entire lives and I know that sounds like the cherry on top of a very weird Sunday but I simply ask that you just go with it. I mean despite not being human, I'm still a person and I think that is the take away of my story.  
  
  
  
  
The previous night was cathartic to say the least... I did miss the days when my niece was little but she has honestly become a stellar adult... Human, yes she's human. Her name is Shadow and for someone in their twenties she really does have a handle on dealing with “breakups” and while that fact doesn't exactly thrill me, she has been my biggest supporter and basically my life coach at the time.  
Shadow and I spent the night eating junk food, we watched romantic comedies from the golden age of cinema, which of course is the 80’s, and we cried while listening to the best and worst broken heart ballads a Spotify play list can deliver. We sang, we danced, and then when Uptown Girl started to play I cried... again.  
Look, I'll be honest, my situation was really more of a glorified one night stand but in the end I did a lot of things that I am honestly not proud of and perhaps a big part of what I am feeling is guilt. I had wanted love so bad that after a while I didn't care what I had to do to get it or who I would get it from. I honestly, felt kind of cheated when one of my brothers found love first, even though he needed it more than I did. His story ended in heart ache too but in a much more severe way than mine did. To even think of asking him to commiserate with me over this would honestly be a huge insult to everything he's been through and if I could take the hurt from him, I would but at this point he can't even talk about it and I don't know what I would say.  
That night I didn't have any trouble falling asleep, considering how tired all the singing and crying made me, I really didn't want to get up but my alarm had other plans and after the second my alarm went off there was Shadow ready to talk me out of bed.  
———————————————————————  
“ROOISH! GET UP!” I opened an eye to look at her, she didn't play fair. She used the nick name she gave me when she was a kid and it gets me every time. It's a strange evolution of “Mike'aroo” and considering who's telling this story one more strange evolution isn't going to make or break my credibility as a narrator.  
“COME ON YOU HAVE A BIG DAY!” I sighed and relented the other eye, I looked at her and tried my best to give her a smile. “OK, hon you win, I'm getting up.” I said through a series of yawns as I meandered into the kitchen. Shadow had coffee and donuts waiting for me, she sure did know how to win her uncle's heart...Copious amounts of brightly colored frosting and French vanilla flavored caffeine. After a shower and bundling up to face a New York Autumn I was on my way to the office. Head phones were big help when walking through the city. To the humans I was just another alien who didn't have the right to live there even though I have lived here all my life. I just concentrated on the music and the lyrics and the beat, in case any uncalled for remarks were hurled my way. This Charming Man by The Smiths was going to be my morning pep talk and despite the ironic lyrics, it was working. The old Mikey was back and he was ready to join so many others as they made their way to their respective places of employ.  
The walk to the office was pretty uneventful and for the most part so was my morning in the Utrom's building. It was kind of cool to see how much the place had grown as far as staff and services that were provided, there were even workers from other planets and or galaxies that had been hired to perform various jobs. For instance, the little guys who have come to be known as The Grays had really taken to doing data entry. Their race had become fairly notorious on Earth for all the “abductions.” However, what they were trying to do was catalog data on every life form they had encountered and those Grays were thorough. Most of the planets they made contact with were willing to be part of their cataloging but not Earth and since the Gray dudes couldn't deal with not being able to catalog EVERY being they were aware of they decided to “Survey” the humans and wipe their memories after they were done. They had been so focused on their data that they started to get a bit sloppy when it came to Earth and by now there are crop circles and grainy photos of their space crafts every wear. The Grays even managed to become so entrenched in Earth Pop culture when they were featured on t-shirts and a vast array of other merchandise.  
The Utroms managed to get them to release a televised public apology to the people of Earth and had require that they all attend a seminar on the importance of consent. Eventually they found a place working for them in the data collections and entry sector and let me tell you they seem very happy... for guys with very minimal facial features. I'd like to think they were happy. But enough about them...  



End file.
